Professional Documents
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Children's Books About Plants, Trees, and Forests
Children's Books About Plants, Trees, and Forests
and Forests
Looking for resources for the classroom? Heres a list of some of the books available to you. The listing
encompasses a variety of those you might refer to, those you might read aloud to your class, or those your
students could read on their own. Look for them in public and school libraries for loaning and among
new and used books at your local bookstore.
** Denotes books contained in the OFEP Box.
Trees
Title: A Busy Year
Author: Leo Lionni
Publisher: Knopf, 1992
Description: Twin mice admire their favorite tree during each month of the year in a lesson on the
seasons.
Title: The Beautiful Christmas Tree
Author: Charlotte Zolotow
Publisher: 1972
Description: Mr. Crockett buys an empty brownstone and a little pine tree from the flower shop. He
nurtures is through the winter and when spring comes he plants the tree, which becomes a majestic pine
as the years pass.
Title: The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree
Author: Stan Berenstain
Publisher: Beginner Books, 1978
Description: Three terrified little bears explore the inside of a mysterious old tree.
Title: The Big Tree **
Author: Bruce Hiscock
Publisher: Atheneum Books-MacMillan, 1991
Description: Hiscock uses a tree in his neighbors backyard as the focal point for a discussion of a trees
life cyle.
Title: Christmas Tree Farm **
Author: Jordan Sandra
Publisher: 1993
Description: Describes the activities that take place on a Christmas tree farm in Rhode Island throughout
each season of the year.
Title: Crinkleroots Guide to Knowing the Trees **
Author: Jim Arnosky
Publisher: Bradbury Press-MacMillan, 1992
Description: This book explains the parts of a tree, uses leaves, seeds, and fall colors to differentiate
among species, Arnosky then describes the differences between hardwood and softwood forests,
emphasizing the advantages of mixed woods to the many creatures that live in it.
Description: Bold paintings on bark paper depicting characters from different cultures and a rhythmic
verse follow the transformation of a tall tree in the forest into a singing fiddle at a picnic dance, showing
that the power of the song still comes from the heart of the wood.
Title: Hug a Tree(and other things to do outdoors with young children)
Author: Robert E. Rockwell, Elizabeth A. Sherwood & Robert A. Williams
Publisher: Gryphon House Inc., 1983
Description: This book contains a wealth of activities to do outdoors with young children so that they
will learn to appreciate their environment.
Title: Johnny Appleseed **
Author: Reeve Lindbergh
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company, 1990
Description: A glorious celebration of John (Johnny Appleseed) Chapmans life through verse and
illustration.
Title: A Logs Life
Author: Wendy Pfeffer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1997
Description: After an oak tree falls in the forest, it has another life as home to a variety of creatures.
Title: Mr. Willowbys Christmas Tree
Author: Robert E. Barry
Publisher: Buccaneer Books, 1992
Description: The rhyming text tells the tale of a Christmas tree too tall for Mr. Willowbys parlor.
Title: Mighty Tree **
Author: Dick Gackenbach
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1992
Description: Three seeds grow into three beautiful trees, each of which serves a different function in
nature and for people.
Title: The Missing Maple Syrup Sap Mystery
Author: Gail Gibbons
Publisher: Warnbe & Co., 1979
Description: A story of how to make maple syrup.
Title: Mr. Plum and the Little Green Tree
Author: Helen Earle Gilbert
Publisher: Stone and Pierce Publishing, 1946
Title: Mr. Tamarins Trees
Author: Kathryn Ernst
Publisher: Crown Publishing Co., 1976
Description: This book is a wonderful tale with an environmental message for children and adults. The
value of trees is concisely shown within the context of a story and illustrations.
Title: Night Tree
Author: Eve Bunting
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Description: On a cold Christmas Eve, a family gathers their supplies, piles into a pickup truck, and
drives out to Lukes Forest, where they greet their favorite tree like an old friend.
Title: Trees (Now I Know Series)
Author: Sharon Gordon
Publisher: Troll Associates, 1983
Title: Old Stump
Author: John Hawkinson
Publisher: Whitman & Co., 1965
Description: A story that helps children learn to appreciate the living creatures in nature.
Title: Once There Was a Tree **
Author: Natalia Romanova
Publisher: Dial Books, 1985
Description: An old stump attracts many living creatures.
Title: The Peach Tree
Author: Norman Pike
Publisher: Stemmer House, 1984
Description: A peach tree's existence is threatened by an overpopulation of aphidsuntil ladybugs come to
the rescue and restore the balance of nature. Pike attempts to demonstrate the interrelation of all living
things by focusing on a limited food chain: tree feeds aphids who feed ladybugs.
Title: The People Who Hugged Trees **
Author: Deborah Lee Rose
Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Inc., 1990
Description: Based on a classic folk tale from India, this haunting story gives children insight into Indias
history and culture while teaching them that environmental protection is everyones concern.
Title: Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf
Author: Lois Ehlert
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991
Description: A simple narrative celebrating a childs pleasure in a sugar maple is extended with excellent
notes on the trees parts as well as lucid instructions for planting and caring for it.
Title: The Season of Arnolds Apple Tree
Author: Gail Gibbons
Publisher: Voyager Books, 1984
Description: In a fun book that teaches about the changing seasons, Arnold enjoys the pleasures of his
apple tree: its buds and blossoms in the spring, its sheltering boughs in summer, the tasty apples in the
fall, and in winter, the bare branches hold strings of popcorn and berries for the birds.
Title: The Sheep and the Rowan Tree
Author: Julia Butcher
Publisher: Holt & Co., 1986
Description: A discontented rowan tree learns to appreciate its position more after being visited by a
well-traveled bird, who tells it how unsuitable it would be to live anywhere else.
Title: Sky Tree **
Author: Thomas Locker
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, 1995
Description: This text records the changes in the trees world just as simply as a child might observe
them, and his magnificent paintings crystallize the natural phenomena that embellish the tree on each
page.
Title: The Story of Johnny Appleseed **
Author: Aliki
Publisher: Prentice-Hall, 1963
Description: Retells the story of John Chapman whose devotion to planting apple trees made him a
legendary figure in American history.
Title: The Sugar Pear Tree
Author: Clyde Bulla
Publisher: Crowell Publishers, 1961
Description: Lonnie wins a pear tree in a school contest but has no place toplant it since his house will
soon be moved to make way for a new road. Grandfather, however ignores all warnings to move and one
night Lonnie, Mother, and Gramp find themselves put out on the sidewalk with no place to go.
Title: Tanyas Big Dream **
Author: Linda Glaser
Publisher: Maxwell MacMillan International, 1994
Description: A short, chapter book about a fourth graders struggle to complete her ambitious Earth Day
project: planting a live in a city park.
Title: Tonia the Tree **
Author: Sandy Stryker
Publisher: Advocacy Press, 1988
Description: A great book to share with children hesitant in having to experience change.
Title: The Tree
Author: Pascale de Bourgoing
Publisher: Scholastic First Discovery Books, 1992
Description: In the latest addition to a nonfiction series for the curious preschooler, readers can witness
each stage of the growth of a tree and then watch it change with the seasons.
Title: A Tree in the Forest
Author: Jan Thornhill
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1991
Description: The text chronicles the two-hundred-year life of a maple tree from its beginnings as a seed
to its vital role as a decaying log.
Title: The Tree in the Ancient Forest **
Author: Carol Reed-Jones
Publisher: Dawn Publications, 1995
Description: A 300 year-old fir tree is the main character in a forest drama depicting the cycle of
interdependence between plants and animals.
Title: Tree in the Trail **
Author: Holling C. Holling
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1979
Description: The story of a cottonwood tree that watched the pageant of history on the Santa Fe Trail
where it stood, a landmark to travelers and a peace-medicine tree to Indians, for over 200 years.
Forests
Title: Ancient Ones: The World of the Old-Growth Douglas Fir **
Author: Barbara Bash
Publisher: 1994
Description: Bash portrays an old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest from a human perspective on
the ground and gazing into its heights, then focuses on the species-rich habitats of canopy, snags, the
forest floor, and a nearby stream.
Title: Be a Friend to Trees
Author: Patricia Lauber
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Description: This book shows that trees are something that we cant live without. It talks about trees as
home and food for various animals, as providers of fruits and nuts for humans, as sources of wood and
paper, and as conserves of soil.
Title: Blaze and the Forest Fire
Author: C.W. Anderson
Publisher: Maxwell MacMillan International, 1992
Description: Blaze and the Forest Fire is part of the classic Billy and Blaze series that captures the
warmth and special understanding between a boy and his horse.
Title: California Blue
Author: David Klass
Publisher: Point, 1996
Description: John Rodgers lives in a northern California logging town, but the redwoods he runs through
mean more to him than a livelihood. This book explores the human cost of environmental action suggests
that there are alternatives to the simplistic butterfly vs. logging jobs model.
Title: Farewell to Shady Glade
Author: Bill Peet
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966
Description: Bulldozers push the raccoon and his friends from their home, but they are able to find a new
one after a terrifying train ride.
Title: The First Forest **
Author: John Gile
Publisher: Worzalla, 1989
Description: This tale tells what happens when greed enters the very first, perfect forest and spoils the
trees beauty and peace.
Title: The Floratorium
Author: Jeanne Oppenheim
Publisher: 1994
Description: Youngsters visit tropical ran forests, rolling prairies, flowering deserts, and the Arctic tundra
and return with an understanding of life in those habitats.
Title: How the Forest Grew
Author: William Jaspersohn
Publisher: Green Willow Books, 1980
Description: Describes the gradual transformation of a cleared farm field into a dense forest.
Title: The Man Who Planted Trees
Author: Jean Giono
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Co., 1985
Description: A compelling story of a simple man who eases his grief over the loss of his family by
planting enough acorns to create a forest in a barren area of France.
Title: Merle the High Flying Squirrel
Author: Bill Peet
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1974
Description: Unhappy about the noise and clutter of the city, a squirrel travels west to find peace and
quiet in the forest of giant trees he has heard about.
Title: One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest **
Author: Jean Craighead George
Publisher: Harper Trophy, 1990
Description: When an impending plot threatens his rainforest home, a Venezuelan Indian boy desperately
hopes to stop the imminent destruction and enlists the help of a visiting scientist.
Title: Our Friend the Forest
Author: Patricia Lauber
Publisher: Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1959
Title: Pharmacy in the Forest **
Author: Fred Powledge
Publisher: Antheneum Books, 1998
Description: This book discusses the many medicines that have come from forest and stresses the need
for conservation in order to preserve potential cures as yet unknown to the medical community.
Title: Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
Author: Robert Frost
Publisher: Dutton, 1978
Description: The poem leaves readers wondering, Where was the man going on the darkest night of the
year? and Why on earth did he stop by the woods in a snowstorm?
Title: Tongass: The Last American Rainforest
Author: Shelly Gill
Publisher: Paws IV Publishers, 1997
Description: Explore part of North Americas rainforest, the setting for this story about Lily, a Tlingit
Indian girl who searches with her aunt for a special spruce tree.
Title: When the Monkeys Came Back
Author: Kristine L. Franklin
Publisher: Atheneum Books MacMillan, 1994
Description: Years after the jungle in her Costa Rica valley is cut down, Don ala Marta persuades her
husband to give her a piece of land on which she plants trees that she and descendants care for until they
grow into a forest and the monkeys that had once lived there return.
Title: Where the Forest Meets the Sea **
Author: Jeannie Baker
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 1987
Description: Lifelike collage illustrations capture an extraordinary visual journey through a tropical rain
forest in North Queensland, Australia, following a young boy as he wonders about the survival of his
primeval wilderness that is now threatened by civilization.
Title: Whisper From the Woods **
Author: Victoria Wirth
Publisher: Green Tiger Press, 1991
Description: A gentle story about the relationship between a wise old tree and the young seedlings in the
forest.
Title: The Woodland Steward
Author: James R. Fazio
Publisher: The Woodland Press, 1985
Description: A practical guide to the management of small private forests. Includes legal forms,
checklists, and contact information.
Plants
Title: From Flower to Fruit
Author: Anne Ophelia Downden
Publisher: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1984
Description: A new edition of the critically praised 1984 book once again offers young readers a
thoughtful, illustrated examination of the reproductive cycle of various flowering plants, tracing all steps
in the process.
Title: The Fall of Freddie the Leaf **
Author: Leo Buscaglia
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, 2002
Description: As Freddie experiences the changing seasons along with his companion leaves, he learns
that death is a part of life.
Description: Describes the structure and purpose of leaves, the ways in which they change as part of the
natural cycle of the seasons, and the process that creates their autumn colors.
Title: How a Seed Grows
Author: Helen J. Jordan
Publisher: Thomas Crowell Co., 1975
Description: Jordan explains how a seed gets water, nutrients, and sunlight, while Krupinskis detailed
pictures dramatize how a little seed may become a flower, a vegetable, or even a huge oak tree.
Title: The Nature and Science of Leaves
Author: Jane Burton, 1997
Publisher: Gareth Stevens, 1997
Description: Discusses different kinds of leaves, the forms and colors they may have, and their functions.
Title: Plants That Never Bloom
Author: Ruth Heller
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, 1984
Description: Rich, colorful illustrations, and informative, rhyming verse unlock a world where
mushrooms glow at night and seaweed grows to be gigantic.
Title: A Tree is a Plant
Author: Clyde Robert Bulla
Publisher: Harper Trophy (reprint), 2001
Description: From the Lets-Read-and-Find-Out Science series this book on the science of trees is
designed for preschool and early-primary-grade children. The book follows an apple plant from seed to
sprout tree, including the development of blossoms, leaves, and fruit.
Environment
Title: Just a Dream **
Author: Chris Van Allsbury
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1990
Description: Young Walter litters and refuses to sort trash for recycling, until he dreams of an
overcrowded and polluted future which terrifies him into taking care of the Earth.
Title: The Lorax **
Author: Dr. Seuss
Publisher: Random House. 1971
Description: An exposition of the ecology crisis done the Seuss way.
Title: A Sand County Almanac **
Author: Aldo Leopold
Publisher: Ballatine Books, 1990
Description: Elaborates on Leopolds view that it is something of a human duty to preserve as much wild
land as possible, as a kind of bank for the biological future of all species.
Title: Seasons (First Start Science Series)
Author: Peggy Gaven
Publisher: Troll Publishers, 1994